The former Squirrel Nut Zippers vocalist trades in her cabaret for lounge on Dirty Little Secret, distancing herself from the old-fashioned jump blues and jazz swing of her old outfit. While Whalen’s wonderful voice would be winning in just about any band, David Sale’s rich, varied production transposes it into…
When not causing a dance-rock ruckus with his bass-drums duo Death From Above 1979, mustachioed four-stringer Jesse Keeler likes to team up with pal Al-P to form the equally Canadian, increasingly prolific, vowel-challenged production team MSTRKRFT. Over the past year, the pair has crafted remixes for such luminaries as Annie,…
Thursday 6Acme Roadhouse: College Night with DJ J. Alan (Top 40) Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness: DJ Red (hip-hop, dance) Anderson’s Fifth Estate: Area 51 with DJ Jeremy (goth, industrial) AZ 88: Mr. P-Body (synth pop, electro) Baja Tilly’s: DJs Richy Rich and Big Latin (reggaeton, hip-hop) The Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance)…
What’s in a name? Depends, when your name is Elmo Kirkwood. At 22, he’s the singer and guitarist for locals Broken Robot. But his musical legacy is much older: Elmo’s the son of Meat Puppets guitarist Curt Kirkwood and nephew of troubled Puppets bass player Cris Kirkwood. “I was in…
If they ever again shoot a capsule into space containing artifacts designed to explain life on Earth to other worlds, they’ll have to make room on board for all 12 volumes of Hip-Hop Essentials. It’s hard to imagine a better explanation of hip-hop for an alien culture. Covering the years…
Independence Day is here again. Turns out we’ve been free for almost 230 years, which is a pretty kick-ass record when you think about it. So what is it that makes America . . . you know . . . America? Well, the best way to solve that mystery is…
In case you haven’t figured it out after all these years, Joan Jett is still the “tough girl.” When her name is mentioned in print, that phrase always follows, like magic, by rote. In an e-mail interview with New Times, Jett has her own take on the pigeonhole she first…
Avenue of the Arts crew member Courdek isn’t just another artist after the glitz and glam of the rap game. Throughout Courdek’s debut solo album, Synchronicity, he expresses his skills as a conscious lyricist in thoughtful chorus and verse rhymes. Composed and performed almost entirely by the MC and producer…
It was only a matter of time before John Ralston broke big. The twentysomething just might be south Florida’s best songwriter — many scenesters, including longtime pal and emo hero Chris Carrabba, say so. A few years back, his work with Legends of Rodeo elevated the band to modest acclaim…
Let’s be honest: Despite the perceived sensitivity injection (courtesy of tear-stained emo and indie artists), radio is no more welcoming to female musicians now than it was during the days of frat-mook nü-metal — well, not to female musicians of substance, at least. Save for Kelly Clarkson and KT Tunstall,…
Metal-core must be a harsh mistress; otherwise, you’d think that more bands in the genre would at least try to inject a shred of originality or imagination into their music. If Orange County’s Scars of Tomorrow don’t necessarily succeed in escaping from the thud-chunk-growl straitjacket, at least they try —…
Hmm, what’s this little story . . . Tilly and the Wall? Let’s have a read: “So the three girls and two boys from Omaha, Nebraska, decided in 2001 to form a band. They called it Tilly and the Wall. But they couldn’t find a drummer! “‘Whatever shall we do?’…
After 10 years at the helm of minimalist indie-mopers Carissa’s Wierd [sic], Pacific Northwesterners Ben Bridwell and Matt Brooke decided, upon that group’s disintegration in 2004, to let their inner Crazy Horses run free on their next musical venture. And so they dubbed their new band, appropriately enough, Band of…
It’s always good to see our local needle-sharers hitting the road with outta-town acts, but it’s even cooler when they breeze into town and get a li’l bit of a homecoming crowd out to hype them up. DJ Element, one of the ‘Nix’s best known turntable talents, has been out…
While we’d like to believe that some good things don’t have to come to an end, Batter the Drag, one of the most innovative (and snarkiest) Tempe bands in recent years, is calling it quits after releasing its first LP, The Big Sleep, early this year. New Times shared a…
Phoenix MC and record label founder Arhythmatik knows that the basement of ASU’s Memorial Union is more than an open venue with strangely acute acoustics. He sees the cellar stage as a mecca of hip-hop culture, and on the last Friday of every month, he shares his vision with hip-hop…
Thursday 29 Acme Roadhouse: College Night with DJ J. Alan (Top 40) Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness: DJ Red (hip-hop, dance) Anderson’s Fifth Estate: Area 51 with DJ Jeremy (goth, industrial) AZ 88: Mr. P-Body (synth pop, electro) The Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) Camus: KURRENT_affairs with Pablo Gomez (electronic, rock, pop, avant-garde)…
1. Ice Cube, Laugh Now Cry Later (Lench Mob) 2. Busta Rhymes, Big Bang (Aftermath) 3. Yung Joc, New Joc City (Bad Boy) 4. Nelly Furtado, Loose (Geffen) 5. Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stadium Arcadium (Warner Bros./Wea) 6. Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere (Downtown) 7. Keane, Under the Iron Sea (Interscope)…
Few things sicken me as much as band-reunions-for-cash, whether it’s the Sex Pistols’ appropriately named Filthy Lucre tour a few years back or the constant barrage of ’70s outfits like Black Sabbath hitting the stage again. I saw the Sabbath reunion its first year at Ozzfest, in 1997, and it…
From the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission Web site: DID YOU KNOW? White sturgeon are the largest freshwater fish in North America and can weigh over 1,500 pounds, be 20 feet in length, and live for over 100 years. !!! We had no idea. But Les Claypool certainly does. Claypool…
Born in Communist Georgia, where she played “I Want to Break Free” on air guitar, raised in Belfast, where she fell in love with the singer-songwriter aesthetic, and a certified pop star in the U.K. before the age of 20, Katie Melua quite literally burst onto the music scene by…
“Some songwriters are extremely sensitive about any liberties being taken with their songs,” says Dave Alvin. “God forbid you should touch some guitar part that had nothing to do with the melody or the lyrics.” Alvin himself is not so protective of his own tunes: “This is my address; the…
